


Huh

by Soulreciever



Series: Got your back [2]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Multi, Non cannon - Freeform, Shitty's potty mouth, vauge vague mentions of drug use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 07:13:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7035304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soulreciever/pseuds/Soulreciever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something in his head had begun whirling away the day that Eric Bittle met Jack Zimmerman for the first time, gears quietly clicking against other gears in some giant metaphorical Rube Goldberg machine that'd stayed pretty much subconscious until the moment Eric's head makes sharp, intimate, contact with the ice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Huh

**Author's Note:**

> In which I attempt a Shitty perspective (pun intended) and my non American status becomes clear thanks to what I suspect is a South West of England sort of saying right near the end of this!

Something in his head had begun whirling away the day that Eric Bittle met Jack Zimmerman for the first time, gears quietly clicking against other gears in some giant metaphorical Rube Goldberg machine that'd stayed pretty much subconscious until the moment Eric's head makes sharp, intimate, contact with the ice.

Actually, in the interest of complete disclosure, it's in the split second after when his eyes meet Jacks and catch the pure shock scribed across them. Guilt would make sense, it's his risky play that's ultimately led them here and maybe, just maybe, horror, Jack seems to have started softening to their sweet southern belle, after all. 

The shock, though, is strange and, to continue on with the metaphor, seeing it clicks another cog into his little machine, which has another cog slide the really astute observation of 'huh' right into his frontal cortex. 

Of course then everyone's everywhere else for summer and when they get back exams become this huge obnoxious thing he can't ignore anymore if he actually, genuinely, wants to go ahead with The Plan, so that's about as far as the thinking gets on the matter for a few weeks. 

He reads Bitty's Twitter, of course, (in fact he'd put on push notifications for the thing way back when and had never quite had the heart to turn the thing off again once Bitty had started feeling comfortable enough around everyone to talk about stuff rather than simply tweet it) but he also knows Bitty's really likely to put romantic spins on anything centring about their glorious Adonis of a captain and so it's not that which gets everything shifting again. 

No what happens is that he, in some magical moment of pure precious co-incidence, just so happens to be in exactly the right part of campus to witness the Great Snow Bank Jumping Incident happen live. 

The jump, in and of itself, really could be written off as a 'how do I human' moment from Jack in about the way that Bitty's Twitter re-count of it manages, but, in context and with how in spotting Bitty Jack's face had done a strange, indescribable thing that'd somehow made him look really young and yet really mature at the same time, it becomes A Thing. 

Clicks what proves the final gear into the giant brain machine metaphor and, with an equally metaphorical twirling of objects to knock other objects into further objects, he reaches a pretty damned solid conclusion.

Jack Zimmerman was balls deep in love with Eric Bittle but, Jack being Jack, he either hadn't quite realised that's what was going on, or, he had realised and was under the impression that it was all horribly one sided. 

Which means all he'd really need is some clever ass casual comment and then jacks own little head machine would get to slotting in the needed cogs and Bob's your fine as all get out hockey legend father. 

They both deserve happy, are both more than strong enough to at least try to make it work and he has to admit that it'd be cool to be the one to get the ball rolling, to be able to stand up at the inevitable wedding and say "I'm the reason we're here today," all happily, drunkly, smug. But, see, the thing is that he actually properly, hot, irrational and irreversibly, hates hypocrites and he knows the moment he involves himself in this even a little he'll become one himself. 

So he steps back away and, for the first time in his life, he looks to a higher power of influence. 

Graduation comes, goes and suddenly he's sat in a wildly overpriced restaurant with a cold neck, his stiff suited bourgeoise father at one shoulder, his equally stiffly dressed aunt at the other and Lardo very deliberately as far from him as they can get away with.

He's desperate to talk to her, to tell her that he'd sold out his best bro, proactively kept him from what's starting to feel more and more like a really, really, solid chance at happiness, because of his own shit.

Because she's worth so much more than him and yet every time he looks at her he knows, right in his bones, that she'd settle, that somehow she's under the utterly foolish notion that it wouldn't be settling at all and that's kept him scared enough that he'd kept his mouth shut. 

In fact he's just working the kinks out of fool proof plan to get them alone at the bar for maybe ten good minutes, maybe even fifteen if he can work it just right, when his phone buzzes in his pocket. 

His father makes a face at the sound and so, of course, he checks it right there at the table rather than excusing himself as he **would** have done if the ass had just let things be, reads that Bitty has, apparently, tweeted _'this boy'_ and loudly exclaims, "Holly shit!!" Sadly before his head and his mouth quite catch up with one another. 

The shit storm that follows has him dramatically storming out, a trail of words in his wake that he already knows Ma is going to have him taking back again tomorrow even though he also knows she knows that he means them and that she heartily agrees with every single last sentiment. Still he can't quite care about that when he feels so fucking elated and Lardo's curling up and under his arm to enquire, 

"What happened, Shits?" 

"I'm pretty sure Jack and Bits just hooked up!" 

"Holly shit!" Then, because she's a mad genius, "This is why you've been so antsy, isn't it?" 

"It's been some of it...look, why don't we go to Annie's, I'll buy you one of those sugar syrup things Bitty claims are coffees and I'll explain the whole damned thing." 

They talk and it goes pretty much how he'd expected apart from the fact that though Lardo is completely and utterly rightfully pissed at him, she's not stepping back and she's not stepping away. 

Instead she kisses him, all firm bruising pressure that promises a hundred delicious thing and then informs him, "this isn't me forgiving you, Knight, nor is it promising I'm even going to think about doing as such," as she steps enough out of his reach to send a very clear message. 

Of course the flood gates have opened now so, voice tellingly thick, he asks,  
"Then what is it?" 

"A promise that this isn't over either, that, eventually, I'll stop being angry and that, when that happens, I'll phone your sorry ass, ok?" 

"Yeh...Jesus it's better than ok it's..." 

"Don't you dare start with that self depreciating bull crap again, Shitty Knight, I've just learned your real name and you can bet your ass that I'll share it on the chat if you do, OK?" 

Which has him laughing even once his life becomes swallowed by the ass that is the first few weeks at Harvard Law and all the good memories become his sanity's anchor. 

Well the good memories and, in the further interest of open honesty, Bitty's Vlog. 

He'd actually stumbled upon the thing on pure co-incidence mid complex YouTube tree and he'd have skipped, done the instantly right thing, if that sweet, sweet, southern drawl hadn't proved an instant, legal, stress buster. 

Of course after watching the first one he phones for permission to keep watching, 

"No pressure, Bits, I know it's been a safe space for you and I don't want to be the one to ruin that." 

Silence a moment and, for all that he'd decided video would be making this a thing, letting Bitty see how damned tired he knows he looks right now and so making it impossible for him to say no without feeling like some heartless monster, he's frustrated that he can't see just what's going on right now with the baker's face. 

Still then he gets a mostly happy sounding response of, "No, it's ok, I trust you to not say anything," that fades into both warm fuzzies and a good dash of suspicion, 

"There's a but there, isn't there, Bits?" 

"Mm, I've never had a friend as a viewer before so I'm not too sure how comfy I'm gonna be talking about the vlogs, you know in an actual conversation." 

"So then we don't talk about them, somehow they're going to be mostly background noise anyway so it's not as though I'll be anywhere near the level of your 'Peaches'" 

"Chirping counts as talking about it." Which comes over a great deal more in control than is usual for a Bittle response to chirps and that means his little pet theory about chips and flirting in regard to a certain ex-captain of his just gained another point. 

They talk for a little after then, just as they're winding up, Bitty informs him, "I started seeing someone." 

"That's great Bits!!" 

"Thanks, but the thing is he's a private person and so I'd decided I wasn't telling anyone from the Hause because, you know, they'll keep asking questions I can't answer until I'd have to take their pies away and no ones winning after that." 

"Meanwhile the Peaches don't know you well enough to pry but also care enough that they're going to be all super stoked happy that you're happy and as that ones win win you're telling them?" 

"Only if it it's ok with my boyfriend and probably not until I'm back at Samwell because that's not a vlog I want mama overhearing, but given that it's a possibility I didn't want you finding out like that." 

That's nice and he tells Bitty that, sucks back the desperate urge to thank this warm, impossible, boy for being so stupidly selfless where so many other people would assert at least some force of self. 

They ring off not long after, he starts marathoning the Vlog and in any sane, normal, life that would have been it until whatever landmark Jack deemed significant enough to reward himself the chance to be honest with the world. 

Instead he gets Skyped by the Bittles. 

He's elbow deep in homework and about forty eight hours worth of sleep away from of any form of rationality when it happens. 

Which is why he doesn't question the fact that, given everyone in the Haus is currently doing their own thing thanks to the break, he's getting a Skype call in the first place and why it doesn't actually register that it's coming from an unknown number until he's greeted with Suzanne's smiling face. 

It's an expression that gutters out what feels a blink of an eye later and, in the universal tone of concerned mother's world wide, she enquires, 

"Oh honey, you look done in, shall I call back some other time?" 

'Yes' is, of course, the right answer, he's seriously too tired to even be a decent human being let alone focused enough for the walk around he knows is still needed to keep Bits's secrets. 

Curiosity is a bitch, however and if he steps away now his brain will keep eating and eating at him until he'd inevitably be basically a zombie by the time Suzanne rings again. 

So he makes an effort to adjust his posture, thanks a few random deities that he's at least half way dressed and gesturing to the pile of work about him he responds, 

"You're doing me a favour, Mrs Bittle." She huffs a little breath of frustrated air at that and there's so much of Bitty in the action that he's instantly smiling an apology and adding, "sorry, **Suzanne**." 

"Well, if you're sure." A sweet little smile, then, face intense determination that's as much her own as it is her son's she enquires, "is he as serious about this as Dicky is?" 

That's a turn up for the books and she's laughing at how comically shocked he must look, before explaining, 

"I had a notion that he was gay a little before we moved to Madison, then he started trying to tell me that was the case without actually telling me which is still about as sweet as it is infuriating." A dismissive little gesture then, "as to the rest of it Dicky's never really been one for hiding how he feels so I knew there was at least an interest there when he introduced us the first time and when he came home from break this time it was more than clear that that interest had become so, so much more." 

There's something more there but it's not as though he'd want to pry even if he had any right beyond 'friendly concern' so he sucks in a breath and responds simply, 

"I can't tell you anything concrete, Suzanne." 

"Oh," uttered not in disappointment, which is what would have made sense, but rather annoyance, which confuses the hell out of him until Suzanne informs someone off camera, "it looks like I owe you that pie after all, sweetheart!" 

"You need to listen to your own wisdom more, darling." Which has to be the man he knows only as 'coach' and, indeed, a moment later the other is settling in at Suzanne's side, mouth crooked sideways as he informs him, 

"Eric Bittle Senior, pleasure to finally meet you son." 

That's not what he'd expected and of course he can see the other man had expected that, is waiting for him to chew him out with about the same sort of sad acceptance Jack had always had on his face whenever they lost a game and he'd been anticipating being told it was because of him. 

Of course that touches something deep in his core, has him re-evaluating a few things and, after a minutes reflection he smiles and, proffering his hand at the screen,  
"Shitty knight and that's a sick moustache you have there, sir." 

"Call me Coach, son, everyone does." A moment as he glances to his wife then, "OK, in a hypothetical situation where we all still knew what we know but the boys'd told us they were dating how'd you answer that question?" 

"I'd tell you that Jack doesn't commit half heartedly, that he's probably already telling Bitty he loves him and wondering just how long is long enough to leave it before he proposes and, perhaps most seriously of all, he'd already have to think if you asked him to choose between Bits and his career. Give it a year and I'd put money on him picking Bits without hesitation." A beet and, smiling, he adds, "metaphorically speaking." 

Another moment of silent communication between the pair and then Suzanne's smiling somehow even warmer than before, promising to pry his address from Bitty so that she can send up a care package or two to "make sure you're looked after" before ending the call a parting shot of "try to get some sleep soon, OK?" 

Which he promptly does and somehow that starts his head to thinking it'd all been some strange ass fatigue induced hallucination, indeed when Lardo **finally** calls and after they've had their heart to heart and everything's fucking amazingly impossibly perfect between them, he recounts the story as though it's just that. 

She laughs when he's done and let's him know that his life really is just that strange and that Bits has asked twice if she'd know why his mama would suddenly be after Shitty's address. 

Whatever she tells him nets him not only a care package from Suzanne but also an entire Bitty pie to work his way through which is honestly more baked goods than one person could ever need so he shares which, of course, makes him a few new friends and somehow ends out with him becoming the to go to guy in campus for delicious baked goods. 

Of course apparently that hadn't been surreal enough and fucking **Alexei Mashkov** corners him during the party everyone puts together to celebrate Jack's first year with the Falcons and starts asking not so subtle questions about Bitty. 

He nods, smiles and does his level best to not give anything away despite it feeling very much like that shutting the gate after the pigs have already gotten out, all the while edging slowly in the direction of the kitchen and, by extension, Bitty's gloriously sunny self. 

They're left just the two of them pretty quickly after that and he makes delicate small talk about baking for much, much, longer than many a stronger man would have managed before cracking and telling the younger man, 

"I **know** , Bits." 

He tries for nievity and, when it becomes clear that's not going to fly, he asks, 

"How?" 

He raises an eye brow at that and huffing out a breath of frustration, Bitty enquires, 

"Lardo too, right?" 

"Yep." He tries for casual and yet Bits is as much aware of his little tells as he is the bakers and, arms folding, he prompts, 

"And?" 

Stepping backwards he responds with "Mashkov was having a bit of a fish earlier," before smiling sweetly and, legs tensing in preparation, he adds, "your folks also phoned me sometime last year to ask after Jack's intentions, so I'm guessing they know too," before bolting as swiftly as he can manage, catching Jacks eye as he makes the door and mouthing an apology as a scream of, 

"Get your ass back here Knight!!!" Erupts from the kitchen. 

**Author's Note:**

> Somehow Zimbits had intended to come out at that party anyways but now not only has the fun gone out of seeing their friends faces (because, aparently, they've been a little obvious around people they know) but Bits is going to have a crisis because his folks start chirping him about his love life once they get told he knows they know and Lord isn't that embaressing.
> 
> 'Shutting the gate after the pigs have already gotten out' is, as it logically sounds, trying to right a situation that's gone pretty wrong already.
> 
> Finally every you tuber calls their fans something thus the 'peaches' for Bitty's fans because it amused!


End file.
